2009 Team Valuations

Reading back on my first real entry, and some of the cut material from my second entry, I realized that I should probably give a breakdown on some of the information on how much the teams in the NFL, MLB, NHL, and NBA are worth. All information below is courtesy of Forbes Magazine, which annually releases information about the valuations of all major sports teams in North America. All I’ve done is sort the information and do some math on how the teams in each league average against one another.

I had previously compiled information from 2009, but not 2010. In the meantime, I’ll put together the team valuations from 2010 and put that information up sometime tomorrow so as to compare which teams have gone up and which teams have gone down in the span of a single year.

Without further ado, here are the franchise values of all professional sports teams in the United States and Canada from 2009, sorted by overall value (be forewarned though, this is going to be a bit dry….):

Most average (mean) NFL franchise – Carolina Panthers (+6 million over mean)
Most average (mean) MLB franchise – St. Louis Cardinals (+5 million over mean)
Most average (mean) NBA franchise – Miami Heat (+15 million over mean)
Most average (mean) NHL franchise – New Jersey Devils (exactly at mean)

From all of this, a few things should really pop out.

First of all, it should be readily apparent that the NFL is the king. 9 out of the top 10 highest valued franchises are in the NFL, 19 of the 20 franchise worth over $1 billion are in the NFL, 28 out of the top 30 franchises are in the NFL, and the lowest valued franchise in the NFL is still worth more than all but 3 of the 30 MLB teams, all 30 NBA teams, and all 30 NHL teams. On top of all that, the combined value of the entire NFL is worth than a billion dollars more than the combined value of the entire MLB, NBA, and NHL ($32,527 million)

Second, there can be no possible denial of the fact that the NHL is the runt of the Big Four professional sports in North America. Only 1 of the top 50 highest valued franchises are in the NHL, only 7 of the top 100 franchises are in the NHL, and the 26 lowest valued franchises are all in the NHL. On top of all that, the average (mean) NFL franchise value is worth more than double the average MLB value, more than 2.75 times the average NBA value, and well more than four times the value of the average NHL team.

Third, if you do the math, you’ll see that Major League Baseball is, by far, the most unbalanced league in all of professional sports by three credible indicators. I have compared the highest valued franchise in each sport and compared it to the average (mean), the lowest valued franchise in each sport to the average (mean), and the highest valued franchise to the lowest valued franchise in each sport. Here are the results.

All of this clearly indicates that Major League Baseball is the most unbalanced major professional sport in terms of franchise worth, not only from the top to the bottom and the top to the average (mean), but from the average to the bottom as well. Simply put, no team is so completely out of whack in regards to high value versus the rest of its league as the New York Yankees, and no team is so completely as lowly valued when compared to the rest of its league as the Florida Marlins.

Finally, all of that shows (at least in my honest opinion) the strength of the NFL’s current revenue sharing agreement. It is by far not only the most valuable league in North America, but it is also the most well-balanced from top to middle to bottom as well.